David Hall
End Piece…
16 March – 22 April 2012
Ambika P3 is delighted to present a major solo exhibition by David Hall, the influential pioneer of video art, featuring a monumental new commission '1001 TV Sets (End Piece)' 1972-2012, as well as restaging two seminal early works. This timely exhibition vividly heralds the end of analogue TV in the UK as London finally switches to digital on 18 April 2012.
The dramatic contemporary reworking of one of Hall’s early major works ‘101 TV sets’ will form the centrepiece of the exhibition. '1001 TV Sets (End Piece)' will feature 1001 cathode ray tube TV sets, of all ages and conditions, filling the massive Ambika P3 subterranean space. The TVs will be tuned to different analogue stations playing randomly in a cacophony of electronic signals, gradually reducing between April 4 and April 18, as the final analogue signals are broadcast from London’s Crystal Palace. When transmission is turned off, the multiple sets will emit only terminal audio hiss and a visual sea of white noise.
Internationally recognised for his groundbreaking work in the field of video art, David Hall (b. 1937) has often been cited as its most influential pioneer in Britain. On 25 January 2012, he was awarded the augural Samsung Art+ Lifetime Achievement Award by an international panel.
Hall started his work as a sculptor and was awarded first prize for sculpture at the Biennale de Paris in 1965 and the following year he took part in the first major exhibition of Minimalist art, Primary Structures, New York (1966) before turning to photography, film and video. He participated in the formation of the Artist Placement Group with John Latham and others in 1966 and was co-organiser of the seminal international Video Show exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, London in 1975; and co-curator of the first video installations exhibition at Tate in 1976. In the same year he initiated and was a founding member of the artists' organisation London Video Arts (now part of LUX).
David Hall’s first works for television appeared unannounced on Scottish TV in 1971. The transmissions were a surprise, a mystery, and have been acknowledged as the first artist interventions seen on British television. An installation version of these early ‘TV Interruptions’ will be exhibited in Ambika P3 alongside ‘Progressive Recession’ a multi-screen interactive work utilising 9 cameras and 9 monitors as complex analogical mirrors.
The exhibition is presented by Ambika P3, University of Westminster in association with Rewind and supported by DHL Envirosolutions, SWEEEP, North London Waste Authority and VINCI construction.
Exhibited Works:
'1001 TV Sets (End Piece)' 1972-2012; ‘Progressive Recession’
1974, and ‘TV Interruptions (7 TV Pieces): the Installation' 1971/2006.
More about David Hall
‘A single figure dominates the beginnings of video art in Britain - David Hall, and his early experiments with broadcast television are unique. Not only are many of his video pieces classics but he has made important and often brilliant contributions to experimental film, installation and sculpture.'
Michael O'Pray, A Directory of British Film and Video Artists, Arts Council of England 1996
David Hall (b. 1937) studied Architecture, Art and Design at Leicester College of Art (1954-60) and sculpture at the Royal College of Art (1960-1964).
Appointed Honorary Professor at Dundee University in 2003, he has taught at the Royal College of Art, St Martin's School of Art, Chelsea College of Art, San Francisco Art Institute, Nova Scotia College of Art and many others.
Hall introduced the term 'time-based media' through his writings in Studio International and elsewhere, and created the first time-based art degree option with an emphasis on video at Maidstone College of Art, Kent (now University for the Creative Arts) in 1972. He has made work for broadcast by, among others, BBC TV, Channel 4 TV, Scottish TV, Canal+ TV and MTV.
Hall has exhibited widely internationally, including Documenta Kassel, Tate Gallery London, Centre Georges Pompidou Paris, Museum of Contemporary Art Barcelona, National Museum Reina Sofia Madrid and has recently featured in exhibitions in Vienna, Berlin, Toronto, Dresden and Santiago de Compostela. His work is held in many major international collections.
davidhallart.com
Source of Televisions for the Exhibition
“DHL’s environmental service offering Envirosolutions are proud to be sponsoring ‘1001 TV Sets’. Through the project, Envirosolutions have organised the collection and safety testing of the TV’s. TV’s have been coming in from across the London areas, including the 7 North London Waste Authority boroughs (NLWA). These have then been forwarded on to a specialist WEEE processer, SWEEEP where the TVs are sorted and tested. Support has also been given from Leicestershire County Council, who has collected a considerable number of TVs from their recycling centres in Leicestershire. Leicestershire have recently gone through the digital switchover and are experiencing an increase in CRT’s than the usual activity at their recycling and reuse sites.”
CREAM Conference: ‘Exhibiting Video’
Friday 23, Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 March 2012
To mark the exhibition, the Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM) of the University of Westminster is convening Exhibiting Video, a three-day event considering issues central to the display of video art, bringing together notable artists, curators and writers.
Exhibiting video conference